Cate Blanchett: Nothing prepared me for Rohingya suffering

In her very different role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, Blanchett told a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday that she heard "gut-wrenching accounts" AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett says nothing prepared her for "the extent and depth of suffering" she saw when she visited camps in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar's military.

In her very different role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, Blanchett told a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday that she heard "gut-wrenching accounts" of torture, rape and people seeing loved ones killed before their eyes.

"I am a mother, and I saw my children in the eyes of every single refugee child I met," she said. "I saw myself in every parent. How can any mother endure seeing her child thrown into a fire."

The two-time Academy Award winner, including one for best actress, said: "Their experiences will never leave me."